I woke up this morning and there was a small bloodstain on the sheet and right beside the stain was a dead black bug. This has happened before. I’m not sure what part of my upper body he/she chewed on but I’m sure I am delicious-to die for even. HA!

Yesterday when I was walking with Veena, we passed a house that is being constructed on our lane. The owner is a friend of Veena’s and is living in Australia while the house is being built. The ‘living room set’ (we use it on the second floor for viewing West Wing) that we had cushions made for belongs to this woman. Veena is storing some of her furniture while the house is being built. I asked Veena how long it took to build the house we are in and she said three years! I stopped in my tracks. She had said that earlier but I thought she meant from inception to completion with a lot of time for the architects, permits, etc. No, construction took three years. Why you ask? Availability of materials. She would pick out a tile for the bathroom say and it would be out of stock. Then she would have to wait for it. Imagine the expense of a three-year building cycle. Yikes! As I am writing this, two men are wedged between the exterior of our house and the exterior of the neighbor’s house, applying a coat of sealant then they will paint that side of the house. It was never painted before. We think this is the cause of the mildew in our closet as it in on that side of the house.. This is costing her $2,000, which is an incredible amount of money in Sri Lanka. Remember laborers get $5.00 a day here. These men obviously are getting more. They will have to get scaffolding into the tiny space at some point to reach the upper stories of the house. So she is still having numerous expenses with this project. Eventually this will be a great revenue source for her but so far that is not the case.

I can't remember if I said this before or not but Ron took his first train trip to the east coast. This is an overnight trip, leaving Colombo at 7:15 p.m. and arriving in Batticoloa around 4 or 5 in the morning. He bought a first class sleeper ticket which means you share a room with one other person. The cost was $7.00!

Today I actually did some physical work. Knowing how I hate to sweat you should be close to astounded! The balcony on the third floor has a planter that goes the entire width of the house and is about a foot wide. There are two kinds of plants in the planter: one is a trailing plant that I think is called a coral or fountain plant. It cascades over the planter wall down the front side of the house. The other plant I haven’t been able to identify but it has not done well since I have lived here. It is frequently getting fried to a crisp, particularly when we travel and I’m not here to water it daily. So Veena suggested I put some compost in the planter. Today Mr. Kularathna took we to a wonderful plant shop. You need to know that nurseries are almost nonexistent here. Usually people go to the park on the weekend and people bring plants to sell. But an actual shop where you can buy plants is a rare thing indeed. So I resisted buying plants, which I was dying to do because they are all so different here but I did buy 20 kilos of compost. That’s about 44 pounds. Mr. Kularathna asked me how I was going to get it upstairs and I told him a bucket at a time. Remember I’m old! HA! He laughed and toted it up to the third floor for me. You can’t imagine how happy I was as it saved me about fifteen trips going up and down three floors. So I put on my new sleeveless t-shirt I found at Odels’ Warehouse (more about that later) and my short and started spreading the compost. Thank goodness there was a cloud cover today or I would have been fried to a crisp. It took almost the whole bag. I was wringing wet by the time I finished, had compost all over me and the balcony but was so pleased to have nurtured the plants. I cleaned the balcony and me up and had lunch and promptly took a nap, as I couldn’t get to sleep last night until 2:00 when I finally resorted to drugs, Sleepy Time I think it is called.

I got up at 6:00 to walk with Veena who decided not to go today as she was going on a trip. I seriously considered going back to bed but remembered I have gained two pounds and I’m not interested in it going to four pounds so sashayed my hinny out the door and down the lane. My one excursion today so to go see what Odel’s Warehouse was. I keep thinking I am going to be able to find some of those clothes made here for western women and buy another skirt. When I went to the nearby post office recently I spied Odel’s Warehouse. Odel’s is the only department store in the country! I went in and there is always an abundance of clerks so I asked one what the difference between Odel’s and Odel’s Warehouse was. He said, ‘this is where you get bargain prices’. I was careful not to laugh since you can buy great polos and cotton shirts for $3.75-$5.00 at Odel’s! So I got two sleeveless t-shirts (one was a brand name I knew), a good quality rubber spatula, and a tie/belt hanger for my buddy. My bill was $7.50. Like the man said, bargain prices.

That’s it for today from Sri Lanka, paradise in the Indian Ocean.